Diana Said To Have Feared Paparazzi Would Get Hurt

Diana - Princess of Wales - 1961-1997 - Roundup

September 6, 1997

PARIS — Princess Diana worried about the motorcycle-riding paparazzi who followed her the night of her death - not that they might harm her, but that they might fall under the wheels of her car and get hurt, her boyfriend's security chief said Friday.

French authorities moved ahead in the investigation of Sunday's fatal crash, placing three more photographers under formal investigation. That brings to 10 the number of people who could be charged with manslaughter and failure to give aid after the car crash that killed Diana, her beau, Dodi Fayed, and their driver.

''She had expressed concern . . . at the foolhardiness of the motorcycle riders, not for the safety of the vehicle she was traveling in,'' said Paul Handley-Greaves, head of security for the Al Fayed family.

''She expressed concern the erratic manner in which they were driving might result in one of them falling under the wheels either of the lead car or the backup,'' he said at a news conference in London.

Meanwhile, one angry French photographer among those under investigation blamed the Ritz Hotel, saying it never should have sent a ''drunk driver'' to chauffeur the Mercedes in which Diana and her boyfriend died.

Another photographer - who said he took pictures of the wreck, then fled before emergency services arrived - admitted he and some other paparazzi made no attempt to help the victims of the crash in a tunnel along the Seine River.